Garganelli Pasta - A Complete Guide

Garganelli pasta is one of the staple Italian pasta shapes typical for Emilia-Romagna region made with classic fresh egg pasta dough (pasta all'uovo).

Garganelli pasta has a shape of a ridged cylinder with pointed ends.

Overall, garganelli look very similar to penne pasta as they have the same tubular shape. However there are a few significant differences between penne and garganelli.

1. Garganelli use egg based pasta dough, as opposed to eggless penne.
2. Garganelli have a visible seam where one corner of the pasta square adheres to the rest, while penne have a perfectly smooth cylinder shape.
3. Garganelli ridges are perpendicular to the length. Penne ridges are parallel. However both can be made in smooth version as well.

Traditional Garganelli Tool

Traditionally, garganelli pasta is made with a kind of pasta comb, pettine per la pasta. That's why garganelli are sometimes called maccheroni al pettine.

Pasta comb is a simple tool made of parallel thin sticks loosely resembling a comb. It can also be described as a sort of rigid maki mat.

Most people preparing Garganelli at home outside of Emilia Romagna, usually replace it with a gnocchi board, rigagnocchi, the tool used to shape potato gnocchi.

Modern Garganelli Making Tools

1. Straight rolling pin OR pasta machine, which makes pasta rolling much easier and fast.
2. Garganelli board OR gnocchi board + a wooden spoon with not toot thick handle or even a round wooden pencil.

If you want to make smooth garganelli you don't even need a gnocchi board. Just cut the squares and roll them over the wooden spoon handle as described in the recipe.

How To Make Garganelli Step By Step

Garganelli is one of the easiest types of hand made pasta. Follow the step-by-step pictures to see how simple it is.

At the bottom of the page you'll also find a printable version of this recipe including precise measurement of all the ingredients.

Make Egg Pasta Dough

• Sift both flours on work surface (preferably wooden).
• Scoop a well in the center and pour in slightly beaten eggs.
• Add a pinch of salt and start mixing all the ingredients using a fork or a dough scraper until a crumbly dough forms.
• Knead the dough with your hands until a dough ball forms. It should be elastic and no longer sticky. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes or even overnight in the fridge.

Roll & Cut Pasta

Once the dough has rested you can start rolling and shaping.

• Cut off a piece of the dough and slightly flatten it with your fingers. Sprinkle lightly with flour.
• Set machine on the widest setting (0) and pass the dough for the first time. Fold the dough in half and pass again on the same setting.
• Adjust to the next-narrower setting, and pass the dough through it. Repeat the process until you rich thickness of approx 1 mm or position 6 on Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine.
• Return machine to original setting for each new piece of dough.
• Arrange ready sheet on a lightly floured work surface.
• Cut each sheet into 1.5x1.5 or 2x2 inch (3.5x3.5cm or 5x5 cm) squares and let dry for 10 minutes. This will prevent garganelli from flattening when they’re shaped.

NOTE: if you don't have a pasta machine, roll the dough using a rolling pin into approx 1 millimeter thick sheet.

Shape Garganelli

• Place a pasta square on a lightly floured gnocchi board (gnocchi paddle).
• Fold a corner of the square over the garganelli pin.
  NOTE: If you don’t have a special garganelli pin, use a handle of a wooden spoon or even a round wooden pencil.
• Holding both ends of the pin roll it towards you. Apply pressure to imprint the ridges on the square and seal it at the same time.
  IMPORTANT: Be careful not to press too hard to avoid the dough sticking to the board. Apply just enough pressure to seal and imprint the ridges.
• Repeat the process with remaining squares and ultimately with the remaining dough.
• Let shaped garganelli dry for about 15 minutes before cooking to help them hold the shape or let them dry completely overnight and store in a sealed plastic bag.

Top Tip For Success

• Make sure you let your soon-to-be garganelli squares lightly dry before shaping them. Otherwise they'll flatten out soon after shaping.
• If you're not sure which pasta machine setting to use or if you're hand-rolling pasta and need to know if it's the right thickness here's what to do. Make a few test garganelli and boil them in salted water. Taste and adjust pasta thickness if needed.

How To Serve Garganelli

According to a legend, garganelli pasta was invented as a way to the leftover dough from making capelletti - another popular stuffed pasta from Emilia Romagna cooked and served, just like tortellini in brodo, in capon broth.

Since the dish to be prepared was cappelletti, garganelli were also boiled and served in broth. You can use your favorite chicken broth or hearty Italian meat broth.

Nowadays garganelli are more often consumed as a “pasta asciutta”, i.e. dressed with a sauce, rather than boiled and served in broth.

Among the best ways to dress garganelli is surely the traditional Ragu Alla Bolognese or typical ragù from Romagna. The local recipe of this popular meat dressing not only contains minced beef meat, as elsewhere, but also lard, sausage and chicken liver.

Less known dressings, yet still typical of the area, are peas-and-ham, and chick lard-and-shallot.

The former consists of just peas sautéed with small ham cubes (sometimes raw ham) in pan fried shallot, simmered with wine and gently cooked. It sounds delicate and pretty poor until it’s said that a generous handful of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano coats it all in the end.

Some still add heavy cream to get a smoother sauce, and therefore call this dressing “3P” (from the Italian words for peas, ham and heavy cream, respectively piselli, prosciutto and panna), but this is an “eighties” version that has nowadays mostly fallen out of fashion.

The latter dressing, on the other hand, is more contemporary, but uses two local ingredients: shallots from Emilia Romagna and chick lard from the regional mora breed are both typical and highly regarded for their quality.

Garganelli can be even richer than this. Another traditional way to serve them is to generously dress them with a mushroom and truffle sauce and then make a gratin of them.

Another vegetarian alternative is making Garganelli with creamy spinach sauce.

Full Recipe